The present invention relates to a device for cutting concrete piles. More particularly, the present invention relates to a concrete pile cutting device which is adapted to cut prestressed concrete piles at a saving in both time and energy.
In the construction industry, concrete piles, more recently prepared from prestressed concrete have long been employed in the foundation of buildings and the like to serve as a primary load-bearing device. The piles are conventionally installed at the building site by being driven into the ground to a predetermined depth. Frequently, after the piles are driven, they can be seen to extend at varied heights out of the ground, as piles are manufactured to predetermined lengths which are frequently approximations of those lengths needed for a given application. Thus, it is necessary to sever the piles above a certain height generally the grade level of the construction site, to facilitate the uniform erection of the structure in question.
Concrete pile cutting has to date been accomplished by three methods comprising, respectively, demolition of the pile above the desired height, the manuel operation of hand supported motor driven circular saws employing either diamond blades or abrasive cutting edges, and the cumbersome frame and tracking system employing a cutting device utilizing a large blade that moves into the face of the pile on a plane perpendicular to its axis which endeavors to nearly completely sever the pile in one pass. Demolition requires cumbersome equipment and presents a problem in the instance of prestressed piles. The manual sawing technique is slow, arduous work, and the frame tracking system, by its size, requires manipulation by a crane and generates a substantial frictional component by the employment of the larger, thicker blade. Thus, both time and energy are lost in the employment of these well known methods.
Certain devices are known in the prior art for use in cutting stone, including concrete. These devices were utilized for cutting designs and the like in large slabs of stone such as marble, in the manner disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,976,045 and 3,675,972. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,396,713 a device is disclosed for use in cutting doorways and window ways in concrete walls which utilizes straight saw guides attached to a concrete wall in which the saw may move linearly.
In addition to the foregoing references, other patents were noted which do not deal with the cutting of concrete piles, or of concrete material at all, but which were reviewed and noted as representative of the state of the art. Thus, U.S. Pat. No. 1,645,924 discloses a tree felling saw including two opposing rotating circular blades rotatably mounted about transverse carriages. U.S. Pat. No. 3,688,615 discloses a pipe cutting device in which a saw rides a guideway and a chain wrapped about a pipe and thereby moves in a circular path through the cutting sequence.
Applicant believes that the prior art presently known to him contains no suggestion of a device and associated method which alleviates the aforenoted difficulties, which are believed solved by the present invention.